Russian ministry expects to complete WTO talks by yr-end

Russia's Economic Development Ministry expects to complete talks on joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the end of 2009, Maxim Medvedkov, head of the ministry's trade negotiations department said.

"The completion of (Russia's WTO) talks is a matter of months, not years," he said.

On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama instructed their governments to complete talks on Russia's accession to the WTO as soon as possible.

Russia and the U.S. completed their bilateral WTO talks in 2006 but Russia has yet to complete multilateral talks on accession. The negotiations stalled last year in the aftermath of Russia's military conflict with Georgia.